Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang scored twice as Barcelona tightened their hold on second place in La Liga on Tuesday with a 3-1 win at home to Celta Vigo. But Barça’s win was overshadowed by a nasty head injury to defender Ronald Araujo, who had to be taken away in an ambulance in the 64th minute of the game. Araujo was lifted into the ambulance with a neck brace on a stretcher. Barcelona confirmed that the 23-year-old “had suffered a concussion and was taken to hospital for further testing”.
After the game, Barca coach Xavi Hernandez said: “The doctor has told us that he is conscious. He will spend the night in hospital, but he is out of danger.”
“The doctor said not to worry, that he will spend the night in the hospital as a precaution, that’s all.”
Araujo’s injury came after he and Gavi hit heads in a challenge for the same ball. Araujo stumbled for a few seconds before falling to the ground when a concerned Iago Aspas and Eric Garcia called urgently for the medics.
The Uruguayan was placed in the recovery position and after a few minutes was lifted into an ambulance that had driven onto the field.
Aubameyang’s double on either side of halftime came after Memphis Depay opened the scoring at the Nou Camp. Celta pulled one back through Aspas, but all hopes of a comeback were dashed when Jeison Murillo was sent off just before the hour.
“We were effective, but we didn’t play well,” said Xavi. “It was easier against ten men, but we struggled against eleven.”
Barcelona are seven points ahead of Sevilla and eight on Atletico Madrid, with Sevilla and Atletico playing each other on Sunday at the Wanda Metropolitano.
Real Madrid, already crowned champions, are nine points ahead of Xavi Hernandez at the top of the table, game in hand.
Qualifying for next season’s Champions League last weekend means Xavi’s primary goal has already been achieved, but the club’s dire financial situation still means the team cannot afford to give up.
Each place to the top of La Liga is worth around €7 million, while qualifying for the four-team Spanish Super Cup by finishing in the top two is worth a further €8 million to the Catalans.
Electric Aubameyang
They should take second place after another win that owed much to Aubameyang, the 32-year-old who has scored his 12th and 13th goals since coming from Arsenal to Barcelona in January.
Aubameyang’s electric early form has slowed down a bit in recent weeks, but it’s hard to think of a Barca player who has made a bigger contribution to their rebound in the second half of the season.
Depay’s playing time suffered due to Aubameyang’s form, but they both started against Celta and it was Depay who put the hosts ahead 30 minutes into the game, sweeping in after a great run to the right of Ousmane Dembele.
Depay then went on to supply Aubameyang’s first when he grabbed Jordi Alba’s through ball and advanced to his Gabonese team-mate to finish in the corner four minutes before half time.
Three minutes after the restart it was three minutes when Dembele repeated his earlier trick, driving to the right and rolling to the left, this time before the sprinting Aubameyang to send into the corner.
Aspas took advantage of a Barcelona mistake when Araujo was on his tail after Marc-Andre ter Stegen passed out in the penalty area. But eight minutes later, Murillo was ejected for blocking Depay’s passage and Celta’s momentum was gone.
Real Betis had previously kept their hopes in the top four alive by cutting back a 3-0 win over Valencia. Willian Jose, Sergio Canales and Borja Iglesias all scored goals in the second half.
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Betis narrowed the gap with Atletico Madrid in fourth to three points, while Atletico played a game in hand in Elche on Wednesday.
(This story was not edited by DailyExpertNews staff and was generated automatically from a syndicated feed.)
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